Court-case work became a recognizable part of Hoodoo because Black Americans repeatedly faced legal systems in which freedom, safety, money and family could depend on the decisions of judges, sheriffs and juries.

Robert Johnson’s early death became entangled with stories of poisoned whiskey, jealous husbands, supernatural bargains and blues mythology. The documentary record is far thinner than the legend.

Research on St. Helena Island documented rootwork as a living belief system in the late twentieth century, challenging the idea that such practices had vanished generations earlier.

Hoodoo was not practiced only by famous rootworkers. Protective objects, prayers, roots, amulets and household customs moved through ordinary Black family and neighborhood life.

Hoodoo is living history. What happened in a Black neighborhood in 1996 is history. What your grandmother practiced in 2006 is history. This month, the Hall of Records is documenting all of it.